Leadership is the art and science of getting personal and organizational vision fulfilled. It is a combination of innate and learned skills that begin with getting a clear vision of what needs to be done and entails:
- Conveying to others what you see in such a way that they own it and in the process find their peculiar role in it.
- Empowering and unleashing followers to fulfill their part.
- Mobilizing and coordinating the all resources available to ensure their optimum use in order to fulfill vision.
My philosophy of communication in the context of leadership is that it is accurately relating what is envisioned to followers in such a way that it is understood and passion is generated.
All the components of leadership listed above require the ability to effectively communicate otherwise the job will not get done or at best will only be done partially. There is therefore a strong link between being a good leader and being a good communicator.
I know one visionary leader who has brilliant ideas and yet struggles to get many of them fulfilled largely because though he is a good orator, he seems to have difficulty with enabling his team understand the details and importance of what he envisions. As a result he often faces resistance and sabotage from the team. It is often much later that the team comes round to understand the point of view of the leader and to recognize that he was right all along. By that time, precious time and opportunities have been lost.
Strategic leaders live in the future and therefore see things that their followers are oblivious about.
If they are to take their followers into the future they envision, they must be able to convincingly portray what they see. This makes effective communication a very important part of great leadership. Every leader then must seek ways of continually improving their communication skills if they will become even better leaders.
You are welcome to join me in my journey of becoming a better leader and communicator.
